When the proof-sheets came I found Beethoven writing. “Play the Sonata through,” he said to me, remaining seated at his writing-desk. There was an unusual number of errors in the proofs, which fact already made Beethoven impatient. At the end of the first Allegro in the Sonata in G major, however, Nägeli had introduced four measures—after the fourth measure of the last hold:
When I played this Beethoven jumped up in a rage, came running to me, half pushed me away from the pianoforte, shouting: “Where the devil do you find that?” One can scarcely imagine his amazement and rage when he saw the printed notes. I received the commission to make a record of all the errors and at once send the sonatas to Simrock in Bonn, who was to make a reprint and call it Édition très correcte. In this place belong three notes to me:
1. “Be good enough to make a note of the errors and send a record of them at once to Simrock, with the request that he publish as soon as possible—day after to-morrow I will send him the sonata and concerto.”
2. “I must beg you again to do the disagreeable work of making a clear copy of the errors in the Zurich sonatas and sending it to Simrock; you will find a list of the errors at my house in the Wieden.”
3. “Dear Ries!
“Not only are the expression marks poorly indicated but there are also false notes in several places—therefore be careful!—or the work will again be in vain. Ch’à detto l’amato bene?”
The closing words of the second note show that the matter was not brought to an end until late in the spring of 1803, after Beethoven had removed into the theatre buildings An-der-Wien. After the Sonatas became known in Vienna Doležalek asked Beethoven if a certain passage in the D minor Sonata was correct. “Certainly it is correct,” replied the composer, “but you are a countryman of Krumpholz—nothing will go into that hard Bohemian head of yours.”
A circumstance related by Czerny, if accepted as authoritative, proves that two of the three Sonatas were completed in the country. Once when he (Beethoven) saw a rider gallop past his windows in his summer sojourn in Heiligenstadt near Vienna, the regular beat (of the horse’s hoofs) gave him the idea for the theme of the Finale of the D minor sonata, Op. 31, No. 2: